BANGKOK, 18 Feb 2015 – The Commerce Ministry yesterday explained its reason for disqualifying a company with connections to Siam Indica Company Limited from the last rice auction. It has also set up a tighter set of rules to prevent frauds and ensure fairness in the next round of rice auction scheduled for the end of this month.
According to the Ministry, there was clear evidence that exposed the connection between the disqualifying company ‘Empire Development Co.Ltd.’ and Siam Indica, leading officials involved to believe that the former is the latter’s nominee.
Since Siam Indica has already been charged with irregularities in 4 cases related to Government-to-Government rice deals by the National Anti-Corruption Commission, its nominees are not allowed to participate in the subsequent rice auctions.
Meanwhile, the Ministry reported that during the first round of rice auction on January 29th, it was able to sell rice in stockpiles at prices higher than the floor value. It sold more than 496-thousand tons of rice at 7.8 billion baht.
The officials have informed all of the 37 auction winners to sign the contract within the next 15 days to allow the rice delivery.
